Ionization in a frozen Rydberg gas with attractive or repulsive potentials

2008/06/20 by Matthieu Viteau, Amodsen Chotia, Viteau, Matthieu +9
Physics and Astronomy · #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum, superfluid, helium dynamics #Statistical Mechanics and Entropy

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0806.3402

openalex publication_date 2008/06/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We report clear evidence of the role of dipole-dipole interaction in Penning ionization of Rydberg atoms, leading to the formation of an ultracold plasma. Penning ionization of np Rydberg Cesium atoms is prevented for states with in n < 42, which correspond to a repulsive potential, but it does not occur for n larger than 42, corresponding to an attractive potential. Blackbody radiation is mostly responsible for the background and initial ionization, although ion-Rydberg collisions and population transfer due to limited superradiance may have to be considered.

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